Method of and apparatus for automatically feeding cops of spun yarn



NOV. l2, 1968 NOBUYUKl TSUDA ET AL 3,410,406

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY v FEEDING OOPS OF SPUN YARNFiled March 17, i967 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEY Nov. 12, 1968 NOBUYUKITSUDA ET Al. 3,410,406

METHOD oF AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY FEEDING coPs oF sPUN YARNFiled March 17, 1967 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 I N VENT ORS BY @M ATTORNEY Nov.12, 1968 NOBUYUKI TSUDA ET A| 3,410,406

` METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY FEEDING COPS OF SPUN YARNFiled March 17, 1967 e Sheets-Sheet 3 ATTORNEY Nov. 12, 1968 NOBUYUKI TDA ET Ax. 3,410,406

METHOD oF AND APPARAT FOR AUTOMATICALLY FEEDING cops oF sFuN YARN FiledMarch l?, 19,67 e Sheets-Sheet 4 ATTORNEY NOV. 12, 1968 NQBUYUKl TSUDAET AL. 3,410,406 l METHOD 0F AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATIGALLY FEEDINGCOPS OF SPUN YARN Filed March 17, i967 6 Sheets-Sheet b aci INVENTORSNoBuYam ua Kava/ELL /fuo wn MIT/TMI hmka/ maqma /mymmrn ATTORNEY Nov.l2, 1968 NOBUYUKI TSUDA ET AL. 3,410,406

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY FEEDING COPS OF SPUN YARNFiled March 17, 1967 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 BY Q4 @#7191 United States Paterit3,410,406 METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATI- CALLY FEEDING COPS OFSPUN YARN Nobuyuki Tsuda, Neyagawa-shi, Kiyoharu Kurokawa, Anjo-shi,Mititoshi Murai, Marugame-shi, and Masaaki Miyamoto, Kagawa-ken, Japan,assignors to Kurashiki Spinning Co., Ltd., Kurashiki-shi, Japan, acorporation of Japan Filed Mar. 17, 1967, Ser. No. 624,054 Claimspriority, application Japan, Apr. 4, 1966, 41/21,324; Apr. 5, 1966,41/21,620; Apr. 6, 1966, 41/21,900; Apr. 8, 1966, 11/22,345

7 Claims. (Cl. 209-121) ABSTRACT 0F THE DISCLOSURE A method of andapparatus for automatically feeding cops to an automatic Winder from aspinning frame successively, which method comprises suspending the copsfrom a conveyor, travelling around the spinning frame by means ofmagnets, dropping said cops into respective cylindrical hollow holdersbeing carried on a conveyor arranged therebelow, discriminating saidcops in terms of Weight as they are held in said holders, feeding onlythose cops having a prescribed Weight to the Winder upon segregating theunderweight cops, and returning the resulting empty holders to theiroriginal positions.

The present invention relates to a method of and apparatus forautomatically feeding cops of spun yarn to an automatic Winder from aspinning frame.

In the spinning industry, automatic spinning techniques have beendeveloped one after another in an attempt of improving the operationalefficiency, curtailing the labor and maintaining the quality of theproducts, and some of them have been carried into practical use. Withconventional apparatus of the type described, it has been customary toplace doffed cops from a spinning frame in a box before they aretransported by a conveyor or to place the doied cops alone on a conveyorto be fed into a successive automatic Winder for Winding. These methods,therefore, had the following drawbacks. Namely;

(a) Since the box must be carried manually, it is impossible toautomatize the process intermediate between the spinning frame and theWinding machine.

(b) The arrangement of the cops is disordered due to entanglement of thecut ends of the yarns, resulting in jamming of the cops in theirpassage.

(c) A considerable labor is required for the discrimination ofunderweight cops.

Because of the foregoing drawbacks, no apparatus has ever been madeavailable wherein a spinning frame and an automatic Winder are connectedin a completely automatized fashion, and these drawbacks have been abottleneck which has prevented the materialization of a fullautomaticcontinuous spinning operation.

It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a methodof `and an apparatus for fully automatizing the steps between thespinning operation and the winding operation, whereby the cops from thespinning frame are fed into the automatic Winder Without requiringlabor.

Another object of this invention is to provide a method of and anapparatus for Weighing the individual cops automatically at a pointintermediate the process of automatic feeding of the cops from thespinning frame to the automatic Winder so as to discriminate andsegregate underweight cops.

According to an aspect of the present invention, the cops beingdelivered from the spinning frame are sus- 3,410,406 Patented Nov. 12,1968 ICC pended from a conveyor travelling around said spinning frame(hereinafter referred to as spinning frame conveyor), by means of theattractive force of magnets provided on said conveyor; automaticallydetached from said conveyor at a predetermined point in the path of theconveyor to drop them into respective cylindrical hollow holders beingcarried on another conveyor; transported onto an accumulation conveyorsuccessively as they are held in said holders; taken out from saidaccumulation conveyor as required; and dropped from the holders to befed in the automatic Winder, the resulting empty holders beingrecirculated to the original positions for receiving new cops droppedfrom said spinning frame conveyor.

According to another aspect of this invention, the cops, in theaforementioned series of operation, are caused to pass through a Weightdiscriminator for segregation in terms of Weight, before beingtransported onto the accumulation conveyor, and the cops having aprescribed Weight are dropped downwardly to be fied into the Winder andthe resulting empty holders are recirculated for the next cycle ofoperation, Whereas the underweight cops are chuted down into anunderweight cop accumulation box at a predetermined point and theholders emptied by said cops are similarly returned to the positionsWhere new cops are dropped therein from the spinning frame conveyor.

In order that the present invention may be more clearly understood andreadily carried into effect, reference may now be had to theaccompanying drawings in which the invention is illustrated by Way ofexample, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an apparatus embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevation of a device by which the cops suspended froma spinning frame conveyor by means of magnets are dropped intorespective holders;

FIG. 3 is a cross section of the holder;

FIG. 4 is a plan View illustrating means for conveying the holders;

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatical plan View of the spinning frame conveyorprovided with magnets;

FIG. 6 is a plan View, in enlargement, of a critical portion of theapparatus, shown at the lower right portion of FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a side elevation as viewed in the direction of the arrow A inFIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary side elevation as viewed in the direction of thearrow B in FIG. 6;

FIG. 9 is a schematic side elevation showing the arrangement of a chainconveyor;

FIG. 10 is a plan view of a Weight discriminator;

FIG. 11 is a side elevation of the weight discriminator shown in FIG.10;

FIG. l2 is a fragmentary plan View showing an accumulation conveyor;

FIG. 13 is a side elevation of the critical portion of the accumulationconveyor shown in FIG. 12; and

FIG. 14 is a plan view illustratingmeans for feeding cops into anautomatic Winder.

Referring first to FIG. 1, blocks 1 encircled by one-dot chain linesrespectively represent spinning frames in the preceding step. The copsfully Wound in each spinning frame are doffed by catchers mounted on anendless chain of an auto-dolfer (not shown), said endless chaintravelling along a circular path and are attracted by magnets carried onan endless conveyor 2 to be suspended from said conveyor by Ibeingguided through a guide pipe, said endless conveyor being `arranged tomove around said spinning frame. In more detail, the cops 3, as shown inFIG. 2, are each provided with a magnetic element 4 at their top endsand the magnetic element 4 is attracted by the equally spaced magnets 5carried on the endless con- 3 veyor 2, so that the cops are transportedby said endless conveyor in a predetermined direction while beingsuspended therefrom vertically downwardly. A stopper 6 is provided at axed position at one end of the spinning frame across the travelling pathof the suspended cops 3. Thus, it will be understood that, when the cop3 hits the stopper 6, it is Stopped by said stopper and the magneticelement 4 at the top end thereof is disengaged from the magnet 5 on theendless conveyor which is continuously travelling in the direction ofthe arrow. Consequently, the cop 3 drops down under the gravity. In thiscase, the position of the dropping cop 3 is corrected by a stationaryguide 7 so as for the -cop to be chuted right into one of cop holders 9which are carried successively on a belt conveyor 8 travelling beneaththe oor. Each holder 9, as shown in FIG. 3, is composed of a syntheticresin-made cylinder 11 and an iron ring 10 tted on the lower portionthereof. The iron ring serves to lower the center of gravity of theholder as a whole enabling said holder to carry the cop therein in anupstraight position and also to make the holder .adaptable for use witha chain conveyor under the attractive force of magnets provided on saidchain. An error in weight of the entire holder is suppressed to fallwithin an allowable tolerance, so that the subsequent discrimination ofthe cops in terms of weight as will be described later may not beinuenced by the weight error.

As can 'be seen in FIG. 4, the holders 9 are temporarily accumulated onthe belt conveyor 8 below the oor in a suitable number by means of astop lever 12 which is pivotally mounted in a xed position relative tosaid belt conveyor. In FIG. 5, there is shown a sensing device 13consisting of a combination of a light source and a photoelectric tube.This sensing device 13 operates in a manner such that, when the magnet5, with the cop 3 suspended therefrom, intercepts the light from thelight source illuminating the photoelectric tube, solenoids 14 and 14',operatively connected to the respective stop levers 12 and 12 as shownin FIG. 4, are electrically energized by the sensing device, thuscausing -said stop levers to make a pivotal movement towards theconveyor 8 for engagement with the holders 9. The holders 9, therefore,are held stationary ou the travelling conveyor 8, during which periodthe cop 3 is chuted into the holder 9 through the ixed guide 7. When themagnet 5 clears the sensing device 13 permitting the photoelectric tubeto be illuminated again, the solenoids 14 and 14 are deenergizedelectrically causing the stop levers 12 and 12 to return to thenonengaging positions indicated by the dotted lines by means of springs15 and 15' respectively. The holders 9, therefore, are transported bythe conveyor 8 in the direction of the arrow. The sensing device 13 isactuated again by the following magnet and the cop carried by saidmagnet is dropped into the holder, which is held stationary therebelowby the stop lever. This operation is repeated as the magnets passthrough the sensing device and thus the cops are dropped into therespective holders one after another in a successive manner.

In this case, since the holder is held stationary by the stop lever 12only for a short period of time corresponding to the time in which themagnet 5 passes through the sensing device, it is preferable, in orderto preclude falling down or inadequate chuting of the cop as a result ofvariation in relative position of the holder in contact with the stoplever, to accumulate a plurality of holders in adjoining Vrelationbefore the stop lever 12, so as to enable the holder to be brought intothe cop-receiving position in a short period of time. For this purpose,a light interceptin g plate 16 of a length equivalent to the length ofseveral magnets 5 is attached to the endless belt 2 at a point whichwill arrive at the sensing device 13 in advance of the cops, as shown inFIG. 5. By so doing, the -contacting time between the stop lever 12 andthe holder 9 is prolonged as a result of the sensing device being heldin an actuated state for a longer time. Thus, it is possible toaccumulate a plurality of holders 9 rearwardly of the stop lever 12. Thestop lever 12' shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, which is disposed at the rear endof the str-aight path of the belt conveyor 8, is arranged such that itis operatively connected with electric control means in a control boxshown at 17 in FIG. 1 when the endless conveyors 2 are held stationary,but said stop levers 12 and 12 are operatively connected with thesensing devices 13 when said sensing devices 13 are actuated by therespective light intercepting 'plates 16 being carried by the endlessconveyors 2. Said operative connections between said stop lever 12 andsaid electric control means, and between said stop levers 12, 12' andsaid sensing devices 13 are `automatically switched from one to theother by means of said electric means so as to deliver the holders 9onto the belt conveyor 8 successively.

As shown in FIG. l, the holders 9 each holding a cop 3 therein(indicated by double circles in the figure), which are being transportedyby the belt conveyor 8, ride on a rotating disc plate 18, by which theyare turned and moved onto another belt conveyor 20 while having theirpositions corrected by stationary guide 19. At the forward end of thebelt conveyor 20 is provided means to change the proceeding direction ofthe cop-carrying holders horizontally and vertically. In describing thismeans in detail with reference to FIGS. 6 to 9, a chain 21 is mounted ona drive sprocket wheel 23 and an idle sprocket wheel 22 and is driven bydriving means operatively connected to said drive sprocket wheel 23. Thechain 21 is housed in a guide frame 24 defining the travelling path ofsaid chain and carries brackets 25 fitted thereto at a suitableinterval. Each bracket 25 is composed of a bottom plate 26, anupstraight guide plate 27 extending from that edge of the bottom platewhich is closer to the chain and a plurality of suitably spaced blades28 extending from the trailing edge of said guide plate 27 at rightangles thereto. A stationary plate 29 is arranged in successive relationto the belt conveyor 20. This stationary plate is provided with guides30, 31 and 32 of low height as shown, so as to confine the holdersthereon. The guide 31 has a length which will not interfere with thetravelling of the bracket 25 carrying the holder therein. The beltconveyor 20 is also provided with guides 33 along the side edgesthereof. A leaf spring 3,4 is provided for the purpose of bringing theholder into a predetermined position which has -moved beyond the guide31 and stopped in engagement with the guide 32. A `leaf spring 35 alsoserves to maintain the position of the holder. Indicated at 36 is afeeler of a microswitch which will detect the accumulation of theholders. This feeler is electrically connected with the driving meansfor the chain conveyor.

In operating the apparatus of the construction described above, theholders are accumulated between the tip end of the feeler 36 and theguide 32 before the operation is started and then the belt conveyor 20is driven carrying the holders thereon. When the following holders pushthe tip end of the feeler 36 of the microswitch, the chain 21 begins totravel and the holders accumulated on the stationary plate 29 are caughtby the blades 28 of the respective brackets 25 attached to the chain,and thus transported by said brackets one after another. In this case,as will be seen from the figures, the bottom plate 26 of the bracketpasses underside of the stationary plate 29, while the blades 28 thereofpass over the guides 30 and 32. The holder rests on the bottom plate 26upon clearing the edge of the stationary plate 29. At this time, theholder s pressed against the upstraight guide 27 of said bracket by theleaf spring 35 and thereby is prevented from tilting or dropping fromthe bracket.

As stated previously, the space between the free tip end of the feeler36 and the guide 32 are always filled with the holders. This isnecessary for controlling the positions of the holders and thereby toensure positive supply of the holders into Ithe brackets 25 one afteranother. Since the holders on the stationary plate 29 are constantlyurged forwardly by those on the belt conveyor 20, the space resultingfrom the removal of the foremost holder from the stationary plate by thebracket 25 is immediately filled by the holders which follow and thusthe space on the stationary plate is always maintained full of theholders. Those holders are confined on the stationary plate by means ofthe leaf spring 34, until they are carried away by the blades 28. Thechain 21 stops its operation when the area in front of the feeler 36 ofthe microswitch is vacated by the holders. The chain 21 is guided by theguide 24 such that it travels horizontally at a portion where it isconfronted by the stationary plate 29 and also at a portion where theholders are discharged from the respective brackets after they arebrought to an elevated point by the chain together with the brackets.The intermediate portion of the guide 24 between said two horizontalportions is suitably inclined as required. In order to remove theholders from lthe respective brackets at the elevated end of the chain21, a comb-shaped stationary guide 37 is provided which, as shown inFIG. 8, is adapted to remove the holder from the bracket withoutcontacting the blades 28 of the bracket. The holder thus removed fromthe bracket is then moved onto another belt conveyor 39 by `being guidedby the holder guide 38. It will be obvious that the holders are carriedalong the aforementioned horizontal and sloping paths irrespective ofwhether they have cops therein or not.

Now, referring back to FIG. l, it will be seen that 0 a weightdiscriminator 40 for the cops is provided at the forward end of the beltconveyor 39. This weight discriminator is adapted to measure the weightof the cops in the holders individually successively and segregate theminto those having a prescribed weight and those having an underweight.Now, the operation of the weight discriminator will be explained indetail hereinafter with reference to FIGS. and l1. The cop being heldupstraght in the holder 9 is moved onto a weighing pan 42 together withsaid holder by means of a rotary cam 41 which has a notch 43 formed inthe periphery thereof. The rotary cam 41 is driven by driving means Xoperatively associated with a feeler 44 of a limit switch. Referencenumeral 45 designates a stationary plate, 46 a weighing fulcrum, 47 abalance beam, 48 photoelectric tube means and 49 a conveyor fordelivering weighed cop and holder. A guide plate 50 is fixedly mountedon the conveyor 49 and has a blade-like selector 51 pivotally connectedto an end thereof facing the weighing pan. When the feeler 44 of thelimit switch is actuated by a holder 9 being carried by the conveyor 39,under such state wherein the preceding cop-carrying holders areaccumulated in the space between the cam 41 and a point immediatelyforwardly of the feeler 44 and are urged against the outer periphery ofthe cam by means of the travelling conveyor 39, the driving means X forthe cam 41 is set in operation causing the cam 41 to revolve in thedirection of the arrow. The foremost holder, therefore` is fitted in thenotch 43 in the cam and pushed forward by a pushing roll 52 to move fromthe stationary plate 45 onto the Weighing pan 42, said pushing rollbeing connected to the cam. The preceding holder resting on the weighingpan is, therefore, forced out from said weighing pan and placed on theconveyor 49 to be carried away thereon. Thus, it will be understood thatthe copcarrying holder mounted on the weighing pan is independent fromboth of the preceding and following holders. Then, a lock 53 for thebalance beam 47 is removed by the action of a magnet which is energizedsynchronously with the revolution of the cam 41. The Weighing pan 42 ispermitted to move downwardly for Weight measuring. Upon completion ofthe weighing, the lock 53 is returned to the engaging position by theaction of the magnet and the weighing pan is brought back to itsoriginal position for receiving the following holder. As a result ofweighing, if the total weight of the cop and the holder therefor is ator greater than a prescribed value, the light which is emitted byelectric means only for the period of weighing to illuminate thephotoelectric tube means 48 is intercepted by the balance beam, and nosignal is produced at all. However, where the weight is lighter than theprescribed value, the balance beam does not intercept the light,permitting it to illuminate the photoelectric tube means, and anelectric Signal is given to driving means Y for the selector 51 to causesaid selector to make a swinging motion. In the former case wherein thetotal weight of the cop and the holder is at or greater than theprescribed value, the selec-tor 51 remains in the position indicated bysolid lines in FIG. l0, guiding the holder to move onto the conveyor 49as in the ordinary case. In the latter case, however, wherein the weightis below the prescribed value, the selector 51 is swung to the dottedline position shown in the figure and leads the underweight cop andholder into a path separate from the normal path. It is thus possible todiscriminate the underweight cops from those having a regular Weightautomatically easily and yet in a positive manner.

The conveyor 49 is associated at its forward end with an accumulationconveyor 54. This accumulation conveyor, like the conveyor 49, has aguide plate 55 fixedly mounted thereon so as to separate the holderpassage into a right-hand passage section R and a left-hand passagesection L as viewed in the proceeding direction of the holders. Theconveyor 54 is driven continuously to convey the holders from theconveyor 49 with a cop therein. Where the automatic winder 56 does notcall for a cop, the cop-carrying holders in the L-passage section, thatis the section for the regular-weight cops, is blocked by a stopper 57and the holders being conveyed successively are accumulated in thatsection of the conveyor 54 and a stationary plate 59 which is arrangedsuccessively to said conveyor 54, as shown in FIG. l. On the other hand,where the automatic Winder 56 needs cops, the stopper 57 is opened byelectric means operatively connecting said stopper with said automaticWinder. The holders accumulated on the conveyor 54, therefore, areallowed to advance onto the stationary plate 59 while being arranged ina single row with the aid of a guide 58 and being pushed by thefollowing holders, and fed into the automatic Winder through means aswill be described later.

In displacing a number of cylindrical bodies, alike the holders asemployed in the present invention, which have been accumulated on aconveyor randomly in a plurality of rows, for the purpose of deliveringthem into the following step singly in a successive and orderly manner,use of a fixed guide or rotating rollers has heretofore been known. Suchconventional methods, however, had the drawback that a large number ofcylindrical bodies are jammed in front of the delivery control point andbounded -by each other due to friction therebetween, thus making iteither impossible or difficult to deliver smoothly these cylindricalbodies one by one to the succeeding step. This drawback has been abarrier to the materialization of an automatized continuous process.According to this invention, however, such a conventional drawback hasbeen eliminated by employing a unique guide 58 which is adapted todeliver the holders singly smoothly. The construction of the guide 58will be explained hereunder with reference to FIGS. 12 and 13. The guide58 consists of a leaf spring and is mounted in such a manner that aportion thereof may be brought into contact with the holders, and isadapted to deflect elastically, inwardly as well as outwardly. The guide58 is Xedly supported at a point by a support member 60 and defines aholder passageway together with a liXed guide 61. As shown in FIG. 13,the guide 58 is arranged so as to be brought into contact with the sidewall of the synthetic resinmade cylinders 11 of the holders 9. The ironrings 10 fitted on the lower portion of the cylinder serves to lower thecenter of gravity of the entire holder as stated previously. In theinitial stage of contact with the guide 58, the holder 9 is carriedforward while urging the deflective portion of the guide S outwardlywith its side wall but, as the holder 9 approaches the fixed guide 61,the holder is tilted by the guide 58 in the way shown in FIG. 13,because that portion of the guide 58 is held in a non-deflective stateby being supported by the support member 60. The resulting change inposition of the iron ring 10, together With the change in deflectivestate of the guide 58, causes relaxation and unbalance of the force withwhich the holders are bound by each other. As a result, the holders arereleased from jamming and are permitted to proceed one after another inan orderly manner upon removal of the stopper 57. Such a guiding methodof the present invention has been developed only after a lengthyexperiment and, because of the unique arrangement as described, it ispossible to eliminate the drawback possessed by the conventional methodsand thereby to delivery the holders one after another highly smoothly.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the cop-carrying holders having been advancedonto the stationary plate 59 are conveyed towards the automatic Winder56 by means of a chain conveyor 62 which holds the holders by theattractive force acting between the iron rings of the holders andmagnets mounted on said chain conveyor. Then, the copcarrying holdersare automatically carried by rotating cop feed means 63 one afteranother successively and only the cops are dropped through an aperture64 formed in the xed position of the feed means 63 to be lfed into theautomatic Winder.

The cop feed means 63 is shown in FIG. 14 in enlargement. When theautomatic Winder 56 needs to be fed with cops, a notched rotary disc 65,operatively connected with the automatic Winder, is revolvedintermittently by a quarter of its full turn at each time and thusadvance the cop-carrying holders one after another in cooperation with aguide plate 66. When the cop-carrying holder reaches the aperatu-re 64,the cop only drops through the aperture into the automatic Winder andthe emptied holder is hooked away by an empty-holder guide 67 uponanother one-quarter revolution of the notched disc 65. The empty holderthus disengaged `from the notched disc 65 is returned to the conveyor 8,travelling below the floor, by being carried on a sloped conveyor 68(FIG. 1) along the guide 67. A feeler 69 of a microswitch, shown in FIG.1, is electrically connected with the stopper 57, so that, when thecop-carrying holders clear said feeler to move into the cop feed means63, the feeler is actuated to retract the stopper 57 and, when theholders, thus permitted to proceed onto the stationary plate S9 from the`L-passage section on the accumulation conveyor 54, come in contact withthe feeler, the feeler is deactivated and the stopper S7 is returned toits original position.

On the other hand, the underweight cop-carrying holders and/or emptyholders directed into the R-passage section on the accumulation conveyorare accumulated in said passage section by being blocked by a stopper 71under the same state as those in the L-passage section due to thefunction of a `guide 70 which has the same construction as that of theguide 58. As the number of the holders on the conveyor 68 decreases, thephotoelectric tube means 72 is illuminated, whereby the stopper 71electrically connected thereto is retracted. The holders, therefore, arecarried by a chain conveyor 73, which, similar to the chain conveyor 62,is provided with magnets, and sent onto the sloped conveyor 68. Thestationary plate 59 is formed with an aperture 74 of a size just enoughto allow only the cop to pass therethrough. Therefore, as the holdersare carried by the chain conveyor 73, the underweight cops drop throughthe aperture into a cop-receiving box provided beneath the stationaryplate. In FIG. 1, reference symbol M designates a drive motor `for eachmeans described hereinabove. A feeler 75 of a microswitch provided in axed position with respect to the conveyor 54 operates such that, whenthe lholders are accumulated on the conveyor 59 to a certain amount, themicroswitch is actuated, whereupon electric control means in the controlbox is actuated to stop another cycle of operation of the endlessconveyors 2. The control means in the control box 17 has the order ofthe spinning frames for dofling operation previously memorized therein,so as to drive the conveyors 2 of the spinning frames in that order asrequired.

As will be apparent from the foregoing description, according to thepresent invention, the spun yarn cops suspended from the spinning frameconveyors are automatically detached from said conveyors at apredetermined point and received by the Irespective cylindrical hollowholders arranged therebelow, and conveyed towards the automatic Winderwhile having their proceeding direction automatically changedhorizontally as Well as vertically, during which period they areautomatically segregated into those of regular weight and those ofunderweight as they are held in the holders and are accumulated on theaccumulation conveyor separately, the regular-weight cops held in theholders being taken out from the accumulation conveyor smoothly asrequired by the automatic Winder and removed from the holders only atthe location of the automatic Winder to be fed therein, the resultantempty holders being reci'rculated for reuse, the holders on theaccumulation conveyor having the underweight or unacceptable copstherein being taken out from the accumulation conveyor as empty holdersare demanded by the operation of the inventive apparatus and, afterdropping only the cops therefrom at a predetermined point, recirculatedfor reuse. The series of operation described above is performed entirelycontinuously and automatically, requiring no labor at all. Moreover, bythe use of the holders, the present invention is totally free from thedrawbacks possessed by the conventional apparatus, such as entanglementof the cut ends of spun yarn and others. The present invention hasmaterialized for the rst time complete automatization of the processrequired between spinning frames and automatic winder and, therefore, isof remarkable advance in the art of continuous automatic spinning.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of automatically feeding cops of spun yarn from a spinningframe to an automatic winder, comprising suspending the cops from aconveyor travelling about the spinning frame by the magnetic force ofmag'- nets provided on said conveyor, automatically detaching said copsfrom said conveyor to drop them into respective cylindrical hollowholders carried on another conveyor, conveying said cops successively toan accumulation conveyor as they are held in the holders, taking outsaid copcarrying holders from said accumulation conveyor as required,feeding said cops into the automatic Winder by dropping them from theholders and recirculating the resulting empty holders to the originalcop-receiving position for receiving cops from the spinning frame.

2. A method of automatically feeding cops of spun yarn from a spinningframe to an automatic Winder according to claim l, in which said methodfurther comprises discriminating said cops in the holders into thosehaving a prescribed Weight and those having an underweight before theyare admitted onto the accumulation conveyor, dropping saidregular-weight cops to be fed in the Winder, recirculating the resultingempty holders to the original cop-receiving position for receiving copsfrom the spinning frame, dropping said underweight cops into anunderweight cop-accumulation box and recirculating the resulting emptyholders to the original cop-receiving position for receiving cops fromthe spinning frame, said series of operations being performedautomatically.

3. An apparatus for automatically feeding cops of spun yarn from aspinning frame to an automatic Winder, which comprises a conveyortravelling about the spinning frame and provided with a number ofmagnets thereon for holding the cops in a suspended state therefrom 'bythe magnetic force thereof, a conveyor for carryingcylindrical hollowholders arranged below said first conveyor in partially overlappingrelation, cop detaching means provided across the path of the copssuspended from said first conveyor at a predetermined point in thatportion of the path of the first conveyor Which overlaps the path ofsaid second conveyor, photoelectric tube means provided adjacent saidcop detaching means across the path of the magnets carried on said lirstconveyor, holder stopping means provided in the path of said secondconveyor in register with said cop detaching means and operativelyconnected to said photoelectric tube means, a conveyor for successivelytransporting the cops received in said holders, an accumulation conveyorfor accumulating the cop-carrying holders before the automatic Winder,means for taking out the accumulated cop-carrying holders as requiredand dropping only the cops from the respective holders to be fed in saidautomatic Winder, and means for recirculating the resulting emptyholders onto said second conveyor.

4. An apparatus for automatically feeding cops of spun yarn from aspinning frame to an automatic Winder according to claim 3, in Whichsaid apparatus further comprises cop weight discriminator providedbefore said accumulation conveyor and adapted to produce an electricsignal, a separation guide mounted on said accumulation conveyor andprovided with a selector which is adapted to operate in response to saidelectric signal, and means for taking out the underweight cop-carryingholders from the accumulation conveyor and, after dropping said cops 10from said holders, recirculating the resulting empty holders onto saidsecond conveyor.

5. An apparatus for automatically feeding cops of spun yarn from aspinning frame to an automatic Winder according to claim 3, in Whichsaid apparatus further comprises horizontally joggled and verticallyinclined chain conveyor provided at the forward end of said thirdconveyor and having brackets fitted thereto, each of said 'bracketshaving blades for engagement with the holder.

6. An apparatus for automatically feeding cops of spun yarn from aspinning frame to an automatic Winder according to claim 3, in whichsaid appartus further comprises stopper means provided at the forwardend of said accumulation conveyor for controlling the passage of saidholders, a leaf spring guide arranged before said stopper means so as todefine a tapered passageway and a member adapted to fixedly support saidleaf spring guide at a portion approximating to said stopper means.

7. An apparatus for automatically feeding cops of spun yarn from aspinning frame to anrautomatic Winder according to claim 3, in Whichsaid holder is composed of a synthetic resin-made cylinder and an ironring fitted 0n the lower portion thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 9/1962 Bahnson 57-52 2/1968Livingston 242-35.5

M. HENSON WOOD, J R., Primary Examiner. R. A. SCHACHER, AssistantExaminer.

